Thymidine is the key component of azidothymidine, which is believed to be an effective treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Thymidine is obtained currently by synthetic technology. However, the cost of extraction is typically greater than the value of the synthetic thymidine obtained. Particularly, the synthetic technology which is utilized to obtain thymidine requires an expensive multiple step reaction process that yields relatively low quantities of thymidine.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the inefficiencies of synthetic nucleoside production and provide an abundant and cost-effective source of thymidine.